Electronic apparatus, information processing apparatus, and communication system

ABSTRACT

An electronic apparatus includes circuitry to receive a request for generating electronic data from an information processing apparatus via a first communication network, generate the electronic data, receive storage destination information designating a storage destination of the electronic data from the information processing apparatus via the first communication network, and transmit the generated electronic data to the storage destination via a second communication network, different from the first communication network, based on the storage destination information received from the information processing apparatus.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of and claims priority under 35U.S.C. § 120/121 to U.S. application Ser. No. 15/923,177, filed Mar. 16,2018, which claims priority pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) to JapanesePatent Application No. 2017-052531, filed on Mar. 17, 2017 in the JapanPatent Office, the disclosure of each of which are incorporated byreference herein in their entirety.

BACKGROUND Technical Field

This disclosure relates to an electronic apparatus, an informationprocessing apparatus, and a communication system.

Background Art

Pull print services employ portable terminals and a cloud serverdisposed on the Internet, in which the portable terminals transmitdocument data to the cloud server, the cloud server stores the documentdata, and then users use any multifunctional apparatus to print thedocument data. In this configuration, each user can print the documentdata using a multifunctional apparatus disposed at a site or locationsuch as a travel destination of user.

If the above described operation can be performed by operating themultifunctional apparatus from the portable terminal, it is convenientfor the users. However, the portable terminal may not be able tocommunicate with the multifunctional apparatuses in some cases.Technologies for acquiring communication information for communicatingwith the multifunctional apparatus by the portable terminal using ashort-range wireless communication are known. For example, onetechnology discloses an image processing system including a portableterminal and a multifunctional apparatus, in which the portable terminalacquires communication information from the multifunctional apparatususing a short-range wireless device, and then requests themultifunctional apparatus to print document data via a network using theacquired communication information.

Further, in addition to printing the image data by the multifunctionalapparatus, users may want to acquire image data scanned by a scanner ofthe multifunctional apparatus into portable terminals. In this case, auser uses the multifunctional apparatus to scan the document data,establishes communication between the portable terminal and themultifunctional apparatus, and then receives the image data from themultifunctional apparatus by using the portable terminal.

When the portable terminal is configured to use a circuit-switchedcommunication method such as 3G and LTE and another communication methodsuch as a wireless local area network (LAN) and Wi-Fi, the portableterminal is typically set to use the circuit-switched communicationmethod. Typically, the portable terminal and the multifunctionalapparatus communicate with each other using another communicationmethod. Therefore, when the portable terminal is to receive image datafrom the multifunctional apparatus, the user needs to switch thecommunication method from the circuit-switched communication method toanother communication method.

Further, from the viewpoint of security, it is not desirable to connectthe user portable terminal with the multifunctional apparatus connectedto a network, using another communication method.

SUMMARY

In one aspect of the present invention, an electronic apparatus isdevised. The electronic apparatus includes circuitry to receive arequest for generating electronic data from an information processingapparatus via a first communication network, generate the electronicdata, receive storage destination information designating a storagedestination of the electronic data from the information processingapparatus via the first communication network, and transmit thegenerated electronic data to the storage destination via a secondcommunication network, different from the first communication network,based on the storage destination information received from theinformation processing apparatus.

In another aspect of the present invention, an information processingapparatus is devised. The information processing apparatus includescircuitry to request an electronic apparatus to generate electronic datavia a first communication network, transmit storage destinationinformation designating a storage destination of the electronic data ona network to the electronic apparatus via the first communicationnetwork, and acquire the electronic data, generated by the electronicapparatus and then transmitted from the electronic apparatus to thestorage destination designated on the network based on the storagedestination information and stored in the designated storagedestination, from the designated storage destination via a secondcommunication network different from the first communication network.

In still another aspect of the present invention, a communication systemis devised. The communication system includes an information processingapparatus, an electronic apparatus configured to communicate with theinformation processing apparatus, and a storage device on a networkconfigured to communicate with the information processing apparatus andthe electronic apparatus. The information processing apparatus includesfirst circuitry to transmit a storage destination information ofelectronic data to the electronic apparatus via a first communicationnetwork, the storage destination information of the electronic data isused by the electronic apparatus to store the electronic data in thestorage device on the network, and acquire the electronic data, storedin the storage device by the electronic apparatus, from the storagedevice using the storage destination information via a secondcommunication network different from the first communication network.The electronic apparatus includes second circuitry to receive thestorage destination information from the information processingapparatus via the first communication network, generate the electronicdata, and store the electronic data in the storage device on the networkvia the second communication network based on the storage destinationinformation received from the information processing apparatus.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete appreciation of the description and many of theattendant advantages and features thereof can be readily acquired andunderstood from the following detailed description with reference to theaccompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an operation in a communication systemof an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an example of a system configuration of the communicationsystem of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an example of a hardware block diagram of a portable terminalused in the communication system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a an example of a hardware block diagram of a multifunctionalapparatus used in the communication system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an example of a hardware block diagram of a cloud storage usedin the communication system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an example of a functional block diagram of the portableterminal, the multifunctional apparatus, and the cloud storage used inthe communication system of FIG. 1,

FIG. 7 is an example of a sequence diagram when the portable terminalreceives cloud storage access information;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of an access information input screendisplayed on a display of the portable terminal of FIG. 3;

FIGS. 9AA, 9AB, 9BA, and 9BB illustrate an example of a sequence diagramwhen the portable terminal transmits cloud storage access information tothe multifunctional apparatus, the multifunctional apparatus transmitsimage data to the cloud storage, and then the portable terminal acquiresthe image data from the cloud storage;

FIG. 10A is a flowchart illustrating a sequence when a file name is notdesignated in cloud storage access information;

FIG. 10B is a flowchart illustrating a sequence when an indirectlyspecified file is used;

FIG. 11 is an example of a flowchart illustrating a sequence when theportable terminal displays whether or not image data is received;

FIG. 12 is an example of a flowchart illustrating a sequence of storingimage data in the cloud storage by the multifunctional apparatus;

FIG. 13 is an example of a sequence diagram when an administrator sets arestriction on a transmission method of image data to the cloud storageby setting conditions;

FIG. 14 illustrates an example of a screen used for inputting conditionsof storage destination information (storing method); and

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a sequence diagram performed by themultifunctional apparatus when conditions of storage destinationinformation (storing method) does not match.

The accompanying drawings are intended to depict exemplary embodimentsof the present invention and should not be interpreted to limit thescope thereof. The accompanying drawings are not to be considered asdrawn to scale unless explicitly noted, and identical or similarreference numerals designate identical or similar components throughoutthe several views.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A description is now given of exemplary embodiments of presentdisclosure. It should be noted that although such terms as first,second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements,components, regions, layers and/or sections, it should be understoodthat such elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections are notlimited thereby because such terms are relative, that is, used only todistinguish one element, component, region, layer or section fromanother region, layer or section. Thus, for example, a first element,component, region, layer or section discussed below could be termed asecond element, component, region, layer or section without departingfrom the teachings of present disclosure.

In addition, it should be noted that the terminology used herein is forthe purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is notintended to be limiting of present disclosure. Thus, for example, asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. Moreover, the terms “includes” and/or “including”, when usedin this specification, specify the presence of stated features,integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do notpreclude the presence or addition of one or more other features,integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groupsthereof. Furthermore, although in describing views illustrated in thedrawings, specific terminology is employed for the sake of clarity, thepresent disclosure is not limited to the specific terminology soselected and it is to be understood that each specific element includesall technical equivalents that operate in a similar manner and achieve asimilar result. Referring now to the drawings, one or more apparatusesor systems according to one or more embodiments are describedhereinafter.

Hereinafter, a description is given of one or more embodiments of thepresent invention with reference to the drawings.

Operation in Communication System:

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an operation in a communication system100 of an embodiment of the present invention. In the communicationsystem 100, a user carries a portable terminal 10, and the portableterminal 10 has a subscriber identity module (SIM) card used forconnecting the portable terminal 10 to a circuit-switched communicationnetwork such as a mobile telephone network. In the communication system100, an operation is performed as follows.

(1) The portable terminal 10 communicates with a multifunctionalapparatus 30 by short-range wireless communication such as Bluetooth(registered trademark) and near-field communication (NFC). The portableterminal 10 transmits storage destination information (storing method)of image data to the multifunctional apparatus 30 using the short-rangewireless communication. For example, the portable terminal 10 transmitsuniform resource locator (URL) and information used for authenticatingthe user at the cloud storage 50 as storage destination information(storing method)

(2) The user places a document sheet on a contact glass of themultifunctional apparatus 30 to scan the document sheet. Themultifunctional apparatus 30 scans the document sheet to generate imagedata.

(3) The multifunctional apparatus 30 communicates with the cloud storage50 using the storage destination information, and stores the generatedimage data in the cloud storage 50.

(4) While the multifunctional apparatus 30 is scanning the documentsheet, the portable terminal 10 communicates with the cloud storage 50using a connection method, and attempts to acquire the image data fromthe cloud storage 50.

(5) In case of the image data is registered in the cloud storage 50, theportable terminal 10 acquires the image data from the cloud storage 50.

Therefore, the user can receive the image data of the document sheetscanned by the multifunctional apparatus 30 by performing a simpleoperation such as an operation of starting the scanning. In thecommunication system 100, the user does not need to switch the portableterminal 10 from the circuit-switched communication to the wireless LAN.Further, the portable terminal 10 is not required to be connected to anetwork such as a wireless LAN connected to the multifunctionalapparatus 30.

Terms:

The electronic data may be data transmitted or received through thenetwork. In the embodiment, the electronic data is, for example, imagedata. In addition, the electronic data may be data processed by themultifunctional apparatus 30. For example, the electronic data may betext data generated from image data by performing the characterrecognition processing, or image data including a result of facialrecognition processing. Further, the electronic data may be text datagenerated from audio data by performing the voice recognitionprocessing, or translated document data. The original or initial data,to be processed, may be stored in the multifunctional apparatus 30 ortransmitted from the portable terminal 10.

The storage destination information (storing method) indicates alocation used for storing the electronic data. The storage destinationinformation includes at least location information designating at leastone resource disposed on the Internet. In addition, the multifunctionalapparatus 30 may include one or more units used for storing image datain the cloud storage 50, and is configured to use a communication methodsuch as a communication protocol and Web application interface (API).

Further, the storage location information indicates a storage locationwhere the electronic data is stored, which may be also referred to asaddress information. In the embodiment, the term of “URL” is used as anexample of the storage location information.

Configuration of Communication System:

FIG. 2 is an example of a system configuration of the communicationsystem 100. The communication system 100 includes, for example, theportable terminal 10, the cloud storage 50, and the multifunctionalapparatus 30.

The portable terminal 10 and the cloud storage 50 communicate via anetwork N1. The network N1 employs a network using a circuit-switchedpublic line such as 3G, 4G, or long term evolution (LTE). Thecircuit-switched public line is a communication line connecting aplurality of sites, in which unspecified users physically share and usethe same line. For example, the circuit-switched public line includes amobile telephone network or a personal handy phone system (PHS)communication network. Further, the portable terminal 10 can beconfigured to connect the portable terminal 10 to an access point via awireless local area network (LAN) such as Wi-Fi to communicate with thecloud storage 50 via the Internet.

Further, the portable terminal 10 and the multifunctional apparatus 30communicate via a network N2. The network N2 uses, for example,short-range wireless communication such as near field communication(NFC), Bluetooth, and Bluetooth Low Energy. Further, the network N2 mayuse infrared communication and visible light communication, which can beused in parallel with the public line communication.

Further, the multifunctional apparatus 30 and the cloud storage 50communicate via a network N3. The network N3 is configured by, forexample, a LAN constructed where the multifunctional apparatus 30 isinstalled, a provider network to connect the LAN to a provider network,and a communicate line provided by a line operator. When the network N3includes a plurality of LANs, the network N3 is referred to as wide areanetwork (WAN) or the Internet. The network N3 may be wired network orwireless network, and a combination of the both. Further, when themultifunctional apparatus 30 is directly connected to the public linenetwork, the multifunctional apparatus 30 can be connected to theprovider network without using LAN.

The portable terminal 10, used as an information processing apparatus,runs one or more application software (hereinafter, simply referred toas application) to be described later. The application has a function ofacquiring or downloading image data from the cloud storage 50. Theportable terminal 10 is configured to perform a printing operation ofdocument data stored in the cloud storage 50 by using themultifunctional apparatus 30. The portable terminal 10 is, for example,a smartphone, a cellular phone, a tablet device, a game machine, apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a digital camera, a wearable personalcomputer (PC), a notebook PC, or the like, but not limited thereto.

The cloud storage 50 is a storage device or apparatus disposed on theInternet. Further, the cloud storage 50 can be referred to as a storagedevice or apparatus that provides a disk space on the Internet to users.The cloud storage 50 can be also referred to as an online storage. Thecloud storage 50 is available to various users, such as general usersand companies. When the cloud storage 50 is used, companies do not needto build a file server environment by themselves, and the companies canincrease or decrease the capacity of the storage depending on the needsof companies. Further, the multifunctional apparatus 30 is configured toregister image data on the cloud storage 50 via the Internet, and theportable terminal 10 is configured to retrieve the image data stored onthe cloud storage 50 via the Internet.

Although the cloud storage 50 has a greater storage capacity, the cloudstorage 50 can be also used as an information processing apparatus aswell as the storage device or apparatus. The cloud means cloudcomputing, which means that resources on the network can be used withoutbeing aware of specific hardware resources. The cloud storage 50 is notrequired to be housed in one housing, or the cloud storage 50 is notrequired to be one single apparatus, but the cloud storage 50 can beconfigured by dynamically connecting and disconnecting hardwareresources depending on processing loads. Further, the cloud storage 50can be built in a virtual environment inside a single informationprocessing apparatus or the cloud storage 50 can be built among aplurality of information processing apparatuses.

The multifunctional apparatus 30 is an electronic apparatus such as animage forming apparatus, an image processing apparatus, or a printer.The multifunctional apparatus 30 includes, for example, a scanningfunction in this disclosure. The multifunctional apparatus 30 generateselectronic data to be transmitted to the cloud storage 50. However, themultifunctional apparatus 30 may have a facsimile function, a printfunction, or a copy function. Further, the multifunctional apparatus 30may be referred to as a multifunctional peripherals (MFP), a copier, oran office apparatus. Further, the multifunctional apparatus 30 may havevarious image processing functions such as optical character recognition(OCR) function.

The multifunctional apparatus 30 may have a function of generating imagedata such as a scanner function. Further, devices having an imagingfunction such as digital camera can be also used as the electronicapparatus of the embodiment. The electronic apparatus having the imagingfunction transmits the generated image data to the cloud storage 50.

Hardware Configuration of Portable Terminal:

The portable terminal 10 is implemented by using a hardwareconfiguration illustrated in FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is an example of a hardwareblock diagram of the portable terminal 10. As illustrated in FIG. 3, theportable terminal 10 includes, for example, an input device 101, adisplay 102, an external interface (I/F) 103, a random access memory(RAM) 104, a read only memory (ROM) 105, a central processing unit (CPU)106, a communication I/F 107, a solid state drive (SSD) 108, and ashort-range wireless communication device 109, and these are connectedeach other by a bus B.

The input device 101 is, for example, a touch panel, and is used forinputting each operation signal to the portable terminal 10. Further,the input device 101 may be a keyboard, a mouse, or the like. Thedisplay 102 is, for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD), anddisplays results of processing by the portable terminal 10.

The external I/F 103 is an interface to connect with an external device.The external device includes, for example, a recording medium 103 a.Further, the external I/F 103 is connected to a universal serial bus(USB) cable, the recording medium 103 a, or the like. The recordingmedium 103 a may store programs used for implementing a display methodof the embodiment. The portable terminal 10 can read data from and writedata to the recording medium 103 a via the external I/F 103.

The recording medium 103 a is, for example, a storage medium such assecure digital (SD) memory card. Further, the recording medium 103 a maybe a universal serial bus (USB) memory, a digital versatile disk (DVD),a compact disk (CD), or a flexible disk.

The RAM 104 is a volatile semiconductor memory or storage device usedfor temporarily storing programs and data. The ROM 105 is a nonvolatilesemiconductor memory or storage device that can retain programs or dataeven when the power is turned off. The ROM 105 stores programs and datasuch as basic input/output system (BIOS), operating system (OS)settings, and network settings, which are executed when activating theportable terminal 10.

The CPU 106 is a processing device that controls the portable terminal10 and functions of the portable terminal 10 by reading programs anddata from a storage device such as the ROM 105 and/or the SSD 108 andexecuting the programs and data on the RAM 104. The CPU 106 may be oneor more processing circuits or circuitry

The communication I/F 107 is an interface for communication through thenetwork N. For example, the communication I/F 107 is an interface usedfor connecting the portable terminal 10 to the cloud storage 50 via thenetwork N1. That is, the communication I/F 107 is an interface used forconnecting the portable terminal 10 to the Internet via the public linenetwork. Further, the communication I/F 107 also has a function ofconnecting the portable terminal 10 to a wireless LAN or Wi-Fi.

The SSD 108 is a nonvolatile storage device that stores program 108 pand data. The stored program 108 p and data include, for example, anoperating system (OS), which is a basic software for controlling theportable terminal 10, and applications for providing various functionson the OS. The SSD 108 manages the stored program 108 p and data byusing a given file system and/or database (DB). The portable terminal 10may include a hard disk drive (HDD) instead of the SSD 108, or both ofthe SSD 108 and the HDD.

The short-range wireless communication device 109 is a communicationdevice complied with communication standards such as NFC and Bluetoothcommunication standards. For example, in the case of NFC, theshort-range wireless communication device 109 may be referred to as areader and writer. With this configuration, the portable terminal 10 canperform data communication with the multifunctional apparatus 30 via theshort-range wireless communication device 109.

The portable terminal 10 can implement various kinds of processing to bedescribed later by using the above described hardware configuration.

Hardware Configuration of Multifunctional Apparatus:

The multifunctional apparatus 30 can be implemented by using a hardwareillustrated in FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is an example of a hardware block diagramof the multifunctional apparatus 30. As illustrated in FIG. 4, themultifunctional apparatus 30 includes, for example, a controller 201, anoperation panel 202, an external I/F 203, a communication I/F 204, aprinter 205, a scanner 206, and a short-range wireless communicationdevice 207.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the controller 201 includes, for example, aCPU 211, a RAM 212, a ROM 213, a nonvolatile random access memory(NVRAM) 214, and a HDD 215. The ROM 213 stores various programs anddata. The RAM 212 temporarily stores programs and data. The NVRAM 214stores, for example, setting information. Further, the HDD 215 storesvarious programs 215 p and data.

The CPU 211 reads the program 215 p, data, setting information from theROM 213, the NVRAM 214, and/or the HDD 215, loads the program 215 p,data, setting information on the RAM 212, and executes variousprocessing to control and implement functions of the multifunctionalapparatus 30.

The operation panel 202 includes, for example, an input unit forreceiving an input from a user, and a display unit (including a touchpanel) used for displaying information. The external I/F 203 is used asan interface to connect with an external device. The external deviceincludes, for example, a recording medium 203 a. The recording medium203 a includes, for example, a flexible disk, CD, DVD, SD memory card,and USB memory.

The communication I/F 204 is an interface for communication through thenetwork N. In the embodiment, the multifunctional apparatus 30 isconnected to the cloud storage 50 via the network N3 (FIG. 2).

The printer 205 is a printing device used for printing and outputtingprint target data. The scanner 206 is a scanning device used foroptically scanning document, and converting the scanned data intoelectronic data.

The short-range wireless communication device 207 is a communicationdevice complied with communication standards such as NFC and Bluetoothcommunication standards. For example, in the case of NFC, theshort-range wireless communication device 207 may be referred to as areader and writer. With this configuration, the multifunctionalapparatus 30 can perform data communication with the portable terminal10 via the short-range wireless communication device 207.

The multifunctional apparatus 30 can implement various processes to bedescribed later by using the above described hardware configuration.

Hardware Configuration of Cloud Storage:

FIG. 5 is an example of a hardware block diagram of the cloud storage50. The cloud storage 50 includes, for example, a CPU 301, a ROM 302, aRAM 303, and an auxiliary storage device 304. The cloud storage 50further includes, for example, an input unit 305, a display I/F 306, anetwork I/F 307, and an external device I/F 308. These units of thecloud storage 50 are connected to each other via a bus B. The cloudstorage 50 can be used as an information processing apparatus.

The CPU 301 executes various programs 304 p and operating system (OS)stored in the auxiliary storage device 304. The ROM 302 is a nonvolatilememory. The ROM 302 stores a system loader, data, or the like.

The RAM 303 is a main memory such as dynamic random access memory(DRAM), and static random access memory (SRAM). The program 304 p storedin the auxiliary storage device 304 is loaded on the RAM 303 whenexecuted by the CPU 301, and the RAM 303 is used as a working area ofthe CPU 301.

The auxiliary storage device 304 stores the program 304 p to be executedby the CPU 301 and various databases to be used when the program 304 pis executed by the CPU 301. The auxiliary storage device 304 is, forexample, a nonvolatile memory such as a hard disk drive (HDD), and asolid state drive (SSD).

The input unit 305 is an interface used for inputting variousinstructions to the cloud storage 50. For example, the input unit 305includes a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, a voice input device, orthe like. The input unit 305 may be included in the cloud storage 50 asnecessary.

The display I/F 306 is used to display various information of the cloudstorage 50 on the display 310 in the form of a cursor, a menu, a window,a character, or an image in accordance with a request from the CPU 301.The display I/F 306 is, for example, a graphic chip and a display I/F.The display I/F 306 may be included in the cloud storage 50 asnecessary.

The network I/F 307 is a communication device that is used tocommunicate with the portable terminal 10 and the multifunctionalapparatus 30 through the network. The network I/F 307 is, for example,an Ethernet (registered trademark) card, but not limited thereto. Thenetwork I/F 307 is connected to, for example, the network N1 and thenetwork N3.

The external device I/F 308 is an interface used for connecting a USBcable or a recording medium 320 such as a USB memory.

Functional Configuration of Communication System:

FIG. 6 is an example of a functional block diagram of the portableterminal 10, the multifunctional apparatus 30, and the cloud storage 50used in the communication system 100.

Functional Configuration of Portable Terminal:

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the portable terminal 10 includes, forexample, a public line communication unit 11, a short-range wirelesscommunication unit 12, a data storage unit 13, a user operationreception unit 14, and a wireless LAN communication unit 18. Each of thefunctional units of the portable terminal 10 is a function or means thatis implemented when the CPU 106 loads the program 108 p from the SSD 108to the RAM 104, and executes the program 108 p by using any one of theresources illustrated in FIG. 3. The program 108 p includes, forexample, one or more applications applicable to the communication system100.

The public line communication unit 11 is implemented by executing theprogram 108 p and controlling the communication I/F 107 by the CPU 106illustrated in FIG. 3, and the public line communication unit 11 isconnected to a public line of the circuit-switched communication such as3G/4G/LTE to communicate with the cloud storage 50. The public linecommunication unit 11 and the short-range wireless communication unit 12can be used for communication simultaneously or in parallel in theembodiment.

The wireless LAN communication unit 18 is implemented by executing theprogram 108 p and controlling the communication I/F 107 by the CPU 106illustrated in FIG. 3, and the wireless LAN communication unit 18 isconnected to the wireless LAN to communicate with the multifunctionalapparatus 30. The public line communication unit 11 and the wireless LANcommunication unit 18 cannot be used for communication simultaneously orin parallel.

The short-range wireless communication unit 12 is implemented byexecuting the program 108 p and controlling the short-range wirelesscommunication device 109 by the CPU 106 illustrated in FIG. 3, and theshort-range wireless communication unit 12 communicates with themultifunctional apparatus 30 by using short-range wireless communication(e.g., NFC/Bluetooth/Bluetooth LE).

The user operation reception unit 14 is implemented by executing theprogram 108 p and controlling the input device 101 by the CPU 106illustrated in FIG. 3, and the user operation reception unit 14 receivesinstructions such as inputting of cloud storage access information, tobe described later, a selection of the cloud storage 50, and a start ofscanning from a user.

Further, the user operation reception unit 14 includes, for example, adisplay control unit 15, a data processing unit 16, and an image dataacquiring unit 17. The display control unit 15 is implemented byexecuting the program 108 p and controlling the display 102 by the CPU106 illustrated in FIG. 3, and the display control unit 15 generates anddisplays a screen used as a user interface (UI).

The data processing unit 16 is implemented by executing the program 108p by the CPU 106 illustrated in FIG. 3. The data processing unit 16analyzes the cloud storage access information based on a userinstruction received by the user operation reception unit 14, or basedon an operation received by the user operation reception unit 14, andgenerates information used for accessing the cloud storage 50. Further,the data processing unit 16 stores cloud storage access information 13 aand authentication information 13 b in the data storage unit 13.

The image data acquiring unit 17 inquires image data, such as the latestimage data file, to the cloud storage 50 by using the cloud storageaccess information 13 a, and acquires the file storing the image data.

The data storage unit 13 is implemented by executing the program 108 pby the CPU 106, and the RAM 104 or the SSD 108 illustrated in FIG. 3.The data storage unit 13 stores, for example, the cloud storage accessinformation 13 a, the authentication information 13 b, and image data 13c. The image data 13 c can be downloaded from the cloud storage 50 bythe portable terminal 10. Further, the authentication information 13 bis used for logging in to the multifunctional apparatus 30. Theauthentication information 13 b includes, for example, a user name oruser identification (ID), and a password to be described later. If themultifunctional apparatus 30 is configured not to request the login, theauthentication information 13 b may be omitted. An example of the cloudstorage access information 13 a is illustrated in Table 1.

TABLE 1 Cloud storage ID 12345 URL http://. . . User name ichiroPassword xxxxx

Table 1 is an example of the cloud storage access information 13 a usinga table format. The cloud storage access information 13 a is used foraccessing the cloud storage 50 by the portable terminal 10 or themultifunctional apparatus 30. As one example, the cloud storage accessinformation 13 a includes, for example, a cloud storage ID, a URL, auser name, and a password (see Table 1). The cloud storage ID is usedfor identifying each of the cloud storage 50. The ID stands foridentification, and means an identifier or identification information.The ID includes, for example, name, sign, a string of characters,numerical value, or a combination of one or more of these for uniquelydistinguishing a particular target from a plurality of targets.

The URL indicates a location and a communication method of resourcessuch as files and services accessible on the network. In the embodiment,the URL may include a file name or may not include a file name. The URLis location information or address information indicating a location ofa resource such as a location where image data is stored. The user nameand the password are used to receive the authentication of a user fromthe cloud storage 50. Further, the cloud storage access information 13 amay include a plurality of cloud storage access information.

Functional Configuration of Multifunctional Apparatus:

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the multifunctional apparatus 30 includes, forexample, a LAN communication unit 31, a short-range data communicationunit 32, a data analyzing unit 33, a scanning unit 34, a data storageunit 35, and a user I/F 36. Each of these functions of themultifunctional apparatus 30 is a function that is implemented when theCPU 211 loads the program from the HDD 215 to the RAM 212, and executesthe program by using any one of the resources illustrated in FIG. 4.

The LAN communication unit 31 is implemented by executing the program215 p and controlling the communication I/F 204 by the CPU 211illustrated in FIG. 4, and the LAN communication unit 31 is connected toLAN, either wired or wireless, to communicate with the cloud storage 50.That is, the LAN communication unit 31 is connected to the Internet. TheLAN communication unit 31 includes, for example, an image datatransmission unit 37. After image data is generated by scanning documentby using the scanning unit 34, and then analyzed by the data analyzingunit 33, the image data transmission unit 37 transmits the image data tothe cloud storage 50 by using the acquired URL.

The short-range data communication unit 32 is implemented by executingthe program 215 p and controlling the short-range wireless communicationdevice 207 by the CPU 211 illustrated in FIG. 4, and the short-rangewireless communication unit 32 communicates with other apparatuses byusing short-range wireless communication (e.g., NFC/Bluetooth/BluetoothLE). That is, the short-range wireless communication unit 32communicates with the portable terminal 10 to acquire the cloud storageaccess information 13 a, the authentication information 13 b, thescanning setting, and the file name (when the file name is alreadydetermined).

The data analyzing unit 33 is implemented by executing the program bythe CPU 211 illustrated in FIG. 4, and the data analyzing unit 33extracts the cloud storage access information 13 a, the authenticationinformation 13 b, the scanning setting, and the file name (when the filename is determined) received via the short-range data communication unit32. Then, processing using each piece of information is performed.

The scanning unit 34 is implemented by executing the program 215 p andcontrolling the scanner 206 by the CPU 211 illustrated in FIG. 4, andthe scanning unit 34 scans document placed on a contact plate of thescanner 206 by a user to generate image data.

The user I/F 36 is implemented by executing the program 215 p andcontrolling the operation panel 202 by the CPU 211 illustrated in FIG.4. The user I/F 36 is used as an interface with a user, and is used toreceive operations or instructions from the user. The user I/F 36includes a display control unit 38. The display control unit 38 is usedto display messages, such as a message that the image data cannot betransmitted to the cloud storage 50.

The data storage unit 35 is implemented by executing the program 215 pby the CPU 211, and the RAM 212, the ROM 213, and the HDD 215illustrated in FIG. 4. The data storage unit 35 stores the cloud storageaccess information 13 a, the authentication information 13 b, thescanning setting, the file name (when the file name is determined), andthe image data.

Functional Configuration of Cloud Storage:

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the cloud storage 50 includes, for example, acommunication unit 51, a file processing unit 52, and a file storageunit 53. Each of these functional units of the cloud storage 50 is afunction or means that is implemented when the CPU 301 loads the programfrom the auxiliary storage device 304 to the RAM 303 and executes theprogram by using any one of the resources illustrated in FIG. 5.

The communication unit 51 is implemented by executing the program andcontrolling the network I/F 307 by the CPU 301 illustrated in FIG. 5,and the communication unit 51 communicates with the portable terminal 10and the multifunctional apparatus 30 to transmit and receive variousdata. Since the communication unit 51 is connected to LAN or the like,it is not necessary to connect the communication unit 51 to the publicline when the communication unit 51 communicates with the portableterminal 10.

The file processing unit 52 is implemented by executing the program bythe CPU 301 illustrated in FIG. 5, and the file processing unit 52stores image data received from the multifunctional apparatus 30 in thefile storage unit 53, and reads out a file stored in the file storageunit 53 when the file is requested from the portable terminal 10.

The file storage unit 53 is implemented by the RAM 303 and the auxiliarystorage device 304 illustrated in FIG. 5, and stores various filesincluding image data.

Registration of Cloud Storage Access Information:

Hereinafter, a description is given of a method of receiving the cloudstorage access information 13 a by using the portable terminal 10 withreference to FIGS. 7 and 8. FIG. 7 is an example of a sequence diagramwhen the portable terminal 10 receives the cloud storage accessinformation 13 a. FIG. 8 illustrates an example of an access informationinput screen displayed on the display 102 of the portable terminal 10.

S71: A user operates the portable terminal 10 to activate the program108 p such as an application on the portable terminal 10.

S71.1: When the application is activated, the user operation receptionunit 14 inquires the data storage unit 13 whether the authenticationinformation 13 b is registered in the data storage unit 13. Theauthentication information 13 b is to be used by the multifunctionalapparatus 30 for authenticating the user. Since the authenticationinformation 13 b is not yet registered in the portable terminal 10 atthe time of the initial activation, the user operation reception unit 14determines that the authentication information 13 b is not registered inthe data storage unit 13.

S71.2: Since the authentication information 13 b is not yet registeredin the data storage unit 13, the display control unit 15 of the useroperation reception unit 14 displays a screen used for inputting theauthentication information 13 b on the display 102. The user can enter auser name and a password by following the instructions on the screen.

S71.3: When the user completes the inputting of authenticationinformation, the user operation reception unit 14 registers the inputauthentication information in the data storage unit 13. With thisconfiguration, the authentication information 13 b is stored in the datastorage unit 13.

S71.4: Then, the user operation reception unit 14 requests the datastorage unit 13 to acquire the registered cloud storage accessinformation 13 a from the data storage unit 13. Since the cloud storageaccess information 13 a is not yet registered at the time of the initialactivation, the user operation reception unit 14 determines that thecloud storage access information is not yet registered in the datastorage unit 13.

S71.5: Since the cloud storage access information 13 a is not yetregistered in the data storage unit 13, the display control unit 15 ofthe user operation reception unit 14 displays an access informationinput screen 501 (FIG. 8) used for inputting the cloud storage accessinformation 13 a on the display 102. Then, the user inputs the cloudstorage ID, URL, the user name, and the password by following theinstructions displayed on the access information input screen 501.

S71.6: After the user operation reception unit 14 receives the inputtingof the cloud storage access information 13 a, the data processing unit16 analyzes an access method to the cloud storage 50. For example, thedata processing unit 16 acquires a communication method (e.g.,communication protocol) from the “type,” acquires the “URL,” and checkswhether a file name is included in the URL. If the file name is includedin the URL, the data processing unit 16 acquires the file name.

S71.7: Then, the user operation reception unit 14 checks whether theportable terminal 10 can be actually connected to the cloud storage 50by using the cloud storage access information 13 a input by the user.That is, the user operation reception unit 14 checks whether the publicline communication unit 11 communicates with the cloud storage 50 usingthe acquired communication method and the “URL.” In this example case,it is assumed that the connection is successful.

S71.8: When the connection of the portable terminal 10 with the cloudstorage 50 is successful, the data processing unit 16 of the useroperation reception unit 14 registers the cloud storage accessinformation 13 a in the data storage unit 13. In this way, the cloudstorage access information 13 a can be registered after confirmingwhether the portable terminal 10 can be actually connected to the cloudstorage 50.

If the connection of the portable terminal 10 with the cloud storage 50is not successful in step S71.7, the user operation reception unit 14requests the user to input the cloud storage access information 13 aagain.

Access Information Input Screen:

As illustrated in FIG. 8, the access information input screen 501displays, for example, a plurality of input fields such as aregistration name 502 (i.e., name that can identify the cloud storage50), a type 503 of the cloud storage 50, a URL 504 indicating a storagelocation, a user name 505, and a password 506 necessary for accessingthe cloud storage 50. The setting contents are to be described for eachtype of the cloud storage 50 as follows.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server:

The cloud storage 50 is, for example, a file transfer protocol (FTP)server. The FTP server communicates with a client by using acommunication protocol known as FTP. The setting contents in this caseare as follows.

Registration name: ABC

FTP site (file) type: FTP

URL: ftp://ftp.ABC.co.jp/public/printdata/mydata.dat

User name: user01

Password: password01

In this case, the data processing unit 16 analyzes that the data can betransmitted by FTP based on the “type,” and since a resource designatedby the URL is a file of “mydata.dat,” the data processing unit 16determines that image data is to be stored in this file. In this case,the file name to be transmitted to the cloud storage 50 by themultifunctional apparatus 30 becomes the file name designated by“mydata.dat.” In a case that the URL includes the file name, themultifunctional apparatus 30 does not need to create a file name.

On the other hand, when the URL is registered as follows, a folderbecomes the registration destination of the image data.

URL: ftp://ftp.ricoh.co.jp/public/printdata/

In this case, since the resource designated by the URL is the folder,the portable terminal 10 or the multifunctional apparatus 30 assigns aunique file name to each image data. The file name may be assigned byeither the portable terminal 10 or the multifunctional apparatus 30.This is because the portable terminal 10 can acquire the file from thecloud storage 50 without knowing the file name. Further, themultifunctional apparatus 30 uses the designated folder as the cloudstorage 50, and stores the image data with the assigned file name. Sincethe file name is the unique file name, the multifunctional apparatus 30can handle multiple files simultaneously. The processing of handling aplurality of files (i.e., transmitting a plurality of files such as oneor more image data at the same time by the multifunctional apparatus 30)may be performed when storing document in files page-by-page basis andtransmitting the files to the cloud storage 50.

WebDAV server:

The cloud storage 50 is, for example, a Web-based distributed authoringand versioning (WebDAV) server. The WebDAV server communicates with aclient using a communication protocol called WebDAV. The settingcontents in this case are as follows.

Registration name: ABC WebDAV

Site type: WebDAV

URL: http://webDAV.ABC.co.jp/public/printdata/mydata.dat

User name: user01

Password: password01

In this case, since the data processing unit 16 and the data analyzingunit 33 can recognize that the WebDAV server is used based on the“type,” the portable terminal 10 and the multifunctional apparatus 30can access the cloud storage 50 using the WebDAV protocol. Further,since a location of a file to be used as the storage is known from theURL, the portable terminal 10 and the multifunctional apparatus 30 usethe WebDAV server as the cloud storage 50. In this case too,“mydata.dat” becomes the file name.

Storage Service of Google®:

The cloud storage 50 is, for example, a storage service provided fromGoogle. This storage service is known as a service, in which a generaluser can save his or her files, or files of a group.

Registration name: Google Drive user 01

Type: Google Drive

URL: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/01234abcde

User name: user01

Password: password01

In this case, the data processing unit 16 and the data analyzing unit 33can recognize that the server is Google Drive based on the “type.”Further, the data processing unit 16 determines that a specific folderof Google Drive is used based on the contents of URL. Since “01234abcde”is a folder name, a file name is required, in which the file name of theGoogle Drive is determined when the file is registered. The details areto be described with reference to FIG. 9.

Further, the data processing unit 16 and the data analyzing unit 33determines that the portable terminal 10 and the multifunctionalapparatus 30 can access the cloud storage 50 using a Web applicationprogramming interface (API) such as representational state transfer(REST) I/F because the “type” is Google Drive. That is, the dataprocessing unit 16 stores a relationship of the service of the cloudstorage 50 such as Google Drive and the corresponding Web API using atable. The Web API is a sequential procedure or rule for calling aprogram over the Internet. The Representational State Transfer (REST) isa calling interface for requesting data to a server or the like. Ingeneral, when the HTTP method (e.g., POST/GET) is used for accessing, amessage written in XML is transmitted. The REST is recommended by GoogleDrive, and thereby the REST may not be required for the cloud storage 50in some cases.

Indirectly Specified Storage Destination:

The portable terminal 10 can indirectly designate a file name in thecloud storage access information 13 a. When the portable terminal 10indirectly specifies or designates the storage destination information(storing method), a file including the storage destination information(storing method) is referred to as an indirectly specified file. Theindirectly specified file designates a location where image data isstored on the network.

The portable terminal 10 designates a file name as the unique file name.Since a file name designated by one user may be also designated byanother user (i.e., the same file name is designated by differentusers), the designation of the file name by the user may not bepreferable. The unique file name may be preferably generated by usinguniquely identifiable information such as a model, a manufacturingnumber, and a telephone number of the portable terminal 10. Thefollowing is an example of cloud storage access information 13 a whenthe indirectly specified file is used.

Registration name: FTP (when indirectly specified file is used)

Type: FTP.indirect

URL: ftp://ftp.ricoh.co.jp/public/data/mydata.xml

User name: user01

Password: password01

In this URL, “mydata.xml” is designated for the file name, which is usedas the indirectly specified file. The multifunctional apparatus 30 doesnot store image data in the indirectly specified file. Themultifunctional apparatus 30 stores the image data in the URL designatedby “mydata.xml.” After the multifunctional apparatus 30 completes thestorage of the image data and determines the file name, themultifunctional apparatus 30 writes the file name to the indirectlyspecified file.

As described above, the portable terminal 10 can determine the accessmethod to access the cloud storage 50 based on the cloud storage accessinformation 13 a input by the user. That is, the data processing unit 16determines the communication method, such as the communication protocoland Web API, based on the “type” in the cloud storage access information13 a, and determines the communication destination based on the URL.Further, the designation of the file name can be performed or omitted insome cases. As above described, the cloud storage 50 can employ generalservers such as FTP and WebDAV servers, and specific servers such asGoogleDrive/Evernote/Dropbox having specific Web APIs, in which themultifunctional apparatus 30 can access the cloud storage 50 byperforming the above described processing.

Further, the cloud storage access information 13 a is not limited to theabove cases. For example, the cloud storage 50 can be other serves suchas BOX.net and YahooBox (registered trademark). Further, the cloudstorage 50 can be configured to store data by transmitting e-mail to thecloud storage 50, in which an input screen suitable for e-mail formatmay be prepared by an application.

Operation of Registering Image Data:

Hereinafter, a description is given of an operation of the communicationsystem 100 when a user uses the multifunctional apparatus 30 to scandocument, and uses the portable terminal 10 to acquire image data withreference to FIG. 9 (FIGS. 9AA, 9AB, 9BA, and 9BB). FIG. 9 is an exampleof a sequence diagram when the portable terminal 10 transmits the cloudstorage access information 13 a to the multifunctional apparatus 30, themultifunctional apparatus 30 transmits image data to the cloud storage50, and then the portable terminal 10 acquires the image data from thecloud storage 50.

S91: A user activates an application on the portable terminal 10.

S91.1: The user operation reception unit 14 checks or confirms whetherthe authentication information 13 b is registered in the data storageunit 13. In this example case, it is assumed that the authenticationinformation 13 b is already registered in the data storage unit 13.

S91.2: Then, the user operation reception unit 14 checks or confirmswhether the cloud storage access information 13 a is registered in thedata storage unit 13. In this case, it is assumed that the cloud storageaccess information 13 a is already registered in the data storage unit13.

S91.3: The display control unit 15 of the user operation reception unit14 displays a list of the cloud storage access information 13 a acquiredfrom the data storage unit 13 on the display 102. In this configuration,the user can determine which cloud storage 50 is to be used. The userselects one cloud storage access information from the list of cloudstorage access information 13 a. The user operation reception unit 14receives the user's selection.

S91.4: The display control unit 15 of the portable terminal 10 displaysa dialog or a screen on the display 102 requesting an input of a startof scanning operation. In addition to displaying a scanning startbutton, a screen for inputting the scanning settings (e.g.,color/monochrome, resolution, saved file type) by the user can be alsodisplayed on the display 102. If the default setting value of thescanning setting is already set, the user simply presses the scanningstart button. Further, it is preferable to display a message such as“place document on the multifunctional apparatus 30” before starting thescanning.

S91.4.1: The user operation reception unit 14 waits until the useroperation is input.

S92: The user inputs or enters the scanning settings, if necessary, andinputs or enters the scan start. The user operation reception unit 14receives the input of the scan start by the user.

S92.1: The user operation reception unit 14 requests the data storageunit 13 to create a storage destination information (storing method).The data storage unit 13 creates a file name of image data of documentbased on the cloud storage access information 13 a selected by the user.

For example, when the cloud storage access information 13 a set with FTPis selected, the file name at the end of the URL selected in step S91.3is used as it is. When the folder is designated as the cloud storage 50in the cloud storage access information 13 a set with FTP, an arbitraryfile name (e.g., 001.dat), added by the data processing unit 16, isadded to the URL designated by the FTP (<FTP folder URL>/001.dat). Thisfile name is created without overlapping other file names. The samesequence is also applied to WebDAV.

In a case of the Google Drive, the data processing unit 16 determines anarbitrary file name for the folder included in the URL. The file namecan be any name that does not overlap other file names. Since theportable terminal 10 can communicate with the cloud storage 50 based onthe cloud storage access information 13 a, the portable terminal 10 canset the non-overlapping file name.

In a case of the indirectly specified file too, the data processing unit16 acquires the cloud storage access information 13 a as it is.Alternatively, the data processing unit 16 can acquire the indirectlyspecified file (e.g., xml file) by referring to the cloud storage accessinformation 13 a, and transmits the acquired indirectly specified fileto the multifunctional apparatus 30.

The user inputs the URL of the cloud storage 50 and the file name,actually used for storing the image data, in the indirectly specifiedfile. For example, as for WebDAV, the indirectly specified file is setas follows.

<name>Ricoh WebDAV site</name>

<type>WebDAV</type>

<url>http://webDAV.ricoh.co.jp</url>

<path>/public/data/</path>

<user>user01</user>

<password>password01</password>

In this example case, it is designated that the image data is to bestored in the folder (/public/data/) designated by the <path>tag ofWebDAV, in which the file name is not designated. However, the user candesignate the file name.

S92.2: The display control unit 15 displays a message to bring theportable terminal 10 closer to the multifunctional apparatus 30 on thedisplay 102 of the portable terminal 10.

S92.3: The user operation reception unit 14 requests the short-rangewireless communication unit 12 to connect the portable terminal 10 withthe multifunctional apparatus 30. This connection request allows theportable terminal 10 to connect with the multifunctional apparatus 30 atan early stage when the portable terminal 10 approaches themultifunctional apparatus 30 closer.

S93: The user follows the instructions to bring the portable terminal 10closer to the multifunctional apparatus 30. The short-range wirelesscommunication unit 12 of the portable terminal 10 detects that theshort-range wireless communication unit 12 has approached to theshort-range data communication unit 32 of the multifunctional apparatus30 closer, and then the short-range wireless communication unit 12establishes the connection with the short-range data communication unit32 using the short-range wireless communication. After establishing theconnection, it is checked whether the short-range wireless communicationdevice 109 of the portable terminal 10 and the short-range wirelesscommunication device 207 of the multifunctional apparatus 30 are capableof communicating with each other. This is because the short-rangewireless communication device 109 and the short-range wirelesscommunication device 207 can communicate with each other when the twoshort-range wireless communication devices are NFC compliant, but cannotcommunicate with each other when some of the communication standard ofthe contactless card is used.

S93.1 to S93.1.1: If the short-range wireless communication device 109and the short-range wireless communication device 207 can communicatewith each other, the short-range wireless communication unit 12 of theportable terminal 10 connects with the short-range data communicationunit 32 of the multifunctional apparatus 30.

S93.2: When the connection is successful, the user operation receptionunit 14 requests the short-range wireless communication unit 12 totransmit the cloud storage access information 13 a, the authenticationinformation 13 b, the scanning setting, and the file name (if the filename is determined) as the scan information to the multifunctionalapparatus 30. For example, the display 102 of the portable terminal 10may display a QR code (registered trademark) encoding these information,and the QR code can be scanned by using an image capture device of themultifunctional apparatus 30.

S93.2.1: The short-range wireless communication unit 12 transmits thecloud storage access information 13 a, the authentication information 13b, the scanning setting, and the file name (if the file name isdetermined) to the short-range data communication unit 32 of themultifunctional apparatus 30. The information to be transmitted is notlimited to these. For example, when the communication speed of theshort-range wireless communication is very slow, the communication loadcan be reduced by transmitting the difference between the initial valueand the later value alone, or by using a preset setting for each userwithout transmitting individual pieces of the scanning setting.

S93.2.1.1: When the short-range data communication unit 32 receivesthese data, the short-range data communication unit 32 transmits thesedata to the data analyzing unit 33. The data analyzing unit 33 storesthese data in the data storage unit 35, and transmits a transmissionsuccess notification or report to the short-range wireless communicationunit 12 of the portable terminal 10 via the short-range datacommunication unit 32.

S93.3: The display control unit 15 and the user operation reception unit14 display the success of transmission on the display 102 in response tothe transmission success notification or report. Since the portableterminal 10 has transmitted the necessary information to themultifunctional apparatus 30, the user can move the portable terminal 10away from the multifunctional apparatus 30. However, the short-rangedata communication unit 32 can transmit the operation status of themultifunctional apparatus 30 to the portable terminal 10 at any time.

S93.3.1: The user operation reception unit 14 receives an operation ofstarting the image data acquisition. The acquisition of image data canbe started without performing this operation.

S94: The data analyzing unit 33 of the multifunctional apparatus 30determines whether the user can log-in to the multifunctional apparatus30 by using the acquired authentication information 13 b.

S94.1: The data analyzing unit 33 reports an authentication result tothe user I/F 36.

S94.1.1: The display control unit 38 displays the authentication resulton the operation panel 202. The processing is interrupted or stoppedwhen the authentication error occurs.

S95: The data analyzing unit 33 transmits a scan request to the scanningunit 34 together with the scanning setting.

S95.1: The scanning unit 34 of the multifunctional apparatus 30 scansdocument using the scanning setting.

S96: The data analyzing unit 33 transmits a scan result to the user I/F36.

S96.1: The display control unit 38 displays the scan result on theoperation panel 202.

S98: When the scanning completes successfully, the data analyzing unit33 of the multifunctional apparatus 30 acquires the URL, the user name,and the password from the cloud storage access information 13 a, andtransmits a connection request to the LAN communication unit 31.

S98.1: The LAN communication unit 31 connects to the cloud storage 50based on the URL. Then, the LAN communication unit 31 logs in the cloudstorage 50 using the user name and the password.

S99: After the LAN communication unit 31 logs in the cloud storage 50,the data analyzing unit 33 requests the LAN communication unit 31 totransmit the image data to the cloud storage 50 together with the filename if the file name acquired from the portable terminal 10 exists. Ifthe file name does not exist in the cloud storage access information 13a, the data analyzing unit 33 can be used to create the file name, orthe cloud storage 50 can assign one file name that does not overlap withother file names.

S99.1: The image data transmission unit 37 transmits the image datagenerated by the scanning unit 34 to the cloud storage 50 to store thegenerated image data in the cloud storage 50. Then, the LANcommunication unit 31 acquires a response from the cloud storage 50.Hereinafter, the response and the file name when storing or saving theimage data are described.

For example, when the image data is transmitted to the cloud storage 50by using FTP while the file name is designated, the URL set in theaccess information input screen 501 (FIG. 8) becomes a storage locationof the file, and the file name at the end of the URL becomes the filename as it is. In this case, the response is the URL including this filename.

Further, when the image data is transmitted to the cloud storage 50 byusing FTP while the folder name is designated with no file name, thedata processing unit 16, the data analyzing unit 33, or the cloudstorage 50 assigns an arbitrary file name (e.g., 001.dat) to the imagedata, and transmits the arbitrary file name to the multifunctionalapparatus 30, and thereby the arbitrary file name is used. The cloudstorage 50 returns the URL including this file name to themultifunctional apparatus 30 as a response.

Further, in a case of the Google Drive, the portable terminal 10transmits the URL and the file name set in the cloud storage accessinformation 13 a to the multifunctional apparatus 30, and thereby theimage data transmission unit 37 of the multifunctional apparatus 30accesses the folder of the cloud storage 50 and stores the image data bydesignating the file name in the folder.

In a case of the indirectly specified file, the data analyzing unit 33refers to the cloud storage access information 13 a to open theindirectly specified file, and determines the storage destination fromthe contents of the cloud storage access information 13 a. In theabove-described indirectly specified file, the file name is notdesignated. In this case, the file name is not determined until the fileis saved or stored. Since the access method to the cloud storage 50 andthe path are designated in the indirectly specified file, the image datatransmission unit 37 stores the file in the folder designated by the“path.” Then, the cloud storage 50 returns the saving success messageand the file name of the saved file to the multifunctional apparatus 30as a response. Then, the image data transmission unit 37 describes oradds the file name in the indirectly specified file. The image datatransmission unit 37 also describes a status that the storage of theimage data is completed. The contents described in the indirectlyspecified file can be as follows.

  <filename>20160821083539.jpg</filename> <status>complete</status>

Since the portable terminal 10 can access the “xml file” by referringthe cloud storage access information 13 a, the portable terminal 10 canacquire the file name where h the multifunctional apparatus 30 storesthe image data even when the file name is not designated from theportable terminal 10.

Further, the image data transmission unit 37 may not be able to storethe file in the designated folder in some cases. In a case of theindirectly specified file, the image data transmission unit 37 can storethe image data in another location (i.e., location not designated by theindirectly specified file), and the result can be described in theindirectly specified file. The location that is not designated in theindirectly specified file may be set in the multifunctional apparatus 30in advance or designated by another cloud storage access information 13a.

For example, if the designated cloud storage 50 such as WebDAV serverdoes not have a storage capacity enough to store the file, the imagedata transmission unit 37 cannot store the file data in the cloudstorage 50 using WebDAV server, and thereby the image data transmissionunit 37 stores the file, for example, in the cloud storage 50 using FTP.When such processing is performed, the image data transmission unit 37describes information in the indirectly specified file as follows.

  <name>ABC FTP site</ name> <type>FTP</type><url>ftp://ftp.ABC.co.jp/public/data/mydata.jpg</url><user>user01</user> <password>password01</password><status>complete</status>

In this case, “mydata.jpg” is used as the file name. Since theseinformation may be pre-set in the multifunctional apparatus 30 or set inanother cloud storage access information 13 a, the image datatransmission unit 37 can rewrite or update the indirectly specifiedfile.

In a case when the multifunctional apparatus 30 rewrites the contents ofthe cloud storage access information 13 a transmitted from the portableterminal 10, and thus the cloud storage 50 designated by the cloudstorage access information 13 a cannot be used, the multifunctionalapparatus 30 and the portable terminal 10 can use another cloud storage50 as an alternate location or alternative unit.

The portable terminal 10 can access the indirectly specified file, inwhich the short-range wireless communication unit 12 of the portableterminal 10 can be configured to receive the indirectly specified filefrom the multifunctional apparatus 30.

S97 to S97.1: After the communication by the short-range wireless isestablished successfully, the image data acquiring unit 17 of theportable terminal 10 accesses the cloud storage 50 and attempts toacquire the image data. Since the image data cannot be acquired at astage when the image data is not yet stored in the cloud storage 50 bythe multifunctional apparatus 30, steps S97 to S97.1 are repeated untilthe image data can be acquired.

When the file name is designated in the cloud storage access information13 a or the file name is already known to the portable terminal 10, andthe file having the file name does not exist in the cloud storage 50,the image data acquiring unit 17 determines that the file having thefile name has not been scanned and transmitted by the multifunctionalapparatus 30. If the file having the file name designated in the cloudstorage access information 13 a exists in the cloud storage 50, theimage data acquiring unit 17 acquires the file.

When the folder alone is designated in the cloud storage accessinformation 13 a and the file name is unknown to the portable terminal10, the image data acquiring unit 17 acquires a file (image data) havinga time stamp set after the transmission of the cloud storage accessinformation 13 a in step 93.2. This process is to be described withreference to FIG. 10A. Alternatively, when the cloud storage accessinformation 13 a is transmitted in step 93.2, the list of the files issaved, and the image data acquiring unit 17 acquires a file not existingin the list.

In a case of the indirectly specified file, the image data acquiringunit 17 refers to the cloud storage access information 13 a to acquirethe indirectly specified file, and checks the status description toconfirm the scanning of the document and the transmission of the imagedata. When the indirectly specified file is used, the folder used forstoring the image data may differ from the folder designated by thetransmitted cloud storage access information 13 a, in which the imagedata acquiring unit 17 refers to the indirectly specified file toretrieve a file in accordance with the URL (i.e., folder and file name)described in the indirectly specified file. This process is to bedescribed with reference to FIG. 10B.

The description returns to FIG. 9 (FIG. 9BB). S110: The image dataacquiring unit 17 requests the public line communication unit 11 toacquire the image data.

S110.1: The public line communication unit 11 acquires the image datafrom the cloud storage 50. When the acquisition of the image data issuccessful, the acquisition success and the response are acquired. Thisresponse includes the file.

S111: When the image data acquiring unit 17 succeeds in acquiring theimage data, the image data acquiring unit 17 stores the image data inthe data storage unit 13.

S112: The display control unit 15 displays the acquisition completion ofthe image data on the display 102.

S112.1: The user can recognize that the image data is acquired byviewing the acquisition completion of the image data displayed on thedisplay 102 of the portable terminal 10.

S113: Then, the image data acquiring unit 17 requests the public linecommunication unit 11 to delete the acquired file from the cloud storage50 to prevent the image data, such as confidential data, being stored inthe cloud storage 50 for a long time, in which the portable terminal 10instructs the cloud storage 50 to delete the file (electronic data)stored in the cloud storage 50 via the public line communication unit 11after the portable terminal 10 acquires the file (electronic data) fromthe cloud storage 50 via the public line communication unit 11 (secondcommunication network).

S113.1: The public line communication unit 11 requests the cloud storage50 to delete the acquired file. Since the folder and the file name arealready known, the image data acquiring unit 17 designates the folderand the file name to delete the file from the cloud storage 50. In thiscase, the response includes, for example, the deleted file name.

S114 to S114.1: Further, the multifunctional apparatus 30 can performthe deletion of the file. Since the multifunctional apparatus 30 doesnot recognize whether the image data is acquired or not by the portableterminal 10 unless the file is deleted by the portable terminal 10, themultifunctional apparatus 30 deletes the image data still existing inthe cloud storage 50 for a given time period or more after transmittingthe image data to the cloud storage 50, which means the multifunctionalapparatus 30 instructs the cloud storage 50 to delete the image data,which may still exist in the cloud storage 50, when a given time periodor more elapses after transmitting the image data to the cloud storage50 from the multifunctional apparatus 30. With this configuration, thestoring time period of the image data in the cloud storage 50 can be setshorter.

In this case, it is preferable that the multifunctional apparatus 30stores an error, indicating that the file has not been downloaded, inthe data storage unit 35 or the like. By displaying the error message onthe operation panel 202 when the user returns to the multifunctionalapparatus 30, the user can recognize that the image data of document istransmitted to the cloud storage 50, but the portable terminal 10 doesnot acquire the image data.

By performing the above described sequence, the image data scanned bythe multifunctional apparatus 30 can be acquired by the portableterminal 10. In this configuration, when the portable terminal 10 isbrought closer to the multifunctional apparatus 30, the image data istransmitted to the portable terminal 10, so that the user does not needto switch the communication scheme of the portable terminal 10 from thecircuit-switched communication to the wireless LAN.

The processing sequence of FIG. 9 is one example, and not limitedthereto. For example, the order of steps S91.1 and S91.3 can bereversed. Further, steps S91.1 and S91.3 can be performedsimultaneously. Further, it is also possible to perform the generalscanning setting (e.g., color/monochrome) before step 91.4.

In the above described sequence, the connection of the portable terminal10 and the cloud storage 50, and the connection of the multifunctionalapparatus 30 and the cloud storage 50 use the circuit-switched publicline, but not limited thereto. The communication between the portableterminal 10/multifunctional apparatus 30 and the cloud storage 50 can beany communication method, which can be used with the short-rangewireless communication in parallel.

Operation of Portable Terminal:

Hereinafter, a description is given of a sequence of receiving a file bythe portable terminal 10 with reference to FIG. 10. FIG. 10A is aflowchart illustrating a sequence when a file name is not designated inthe cloud storage access information 13 a, and FIG. 10B is a flowchartillustrating a sequence when an indirectly specified file is used.

A description is given of FIG. 10A. First, when the cloud storage accessinformation 13 a, the authentication information 13 b, the scanningsetting and the file name exist, the short-range wireless communicationunit 12 stores a time when the file name is transmitted as atransmission time of the file name (S1010 a).

When the image data acquiring unit 17 starts to acquire image data, theimage data acquiring unit 17 acquires a file list of a folder stored inthe cloud storage 50 (S1020 a). The folder is described in the cloudstorage access information 13 a.

The image data acquiring unit 17 determines whether a new file, havingtransmission time information set after the transmission time of eachfile identified by the time stamp, exist in the cloud storage 50 (S1030a).

When the determination in step S1030 a is “NO,” steps S1020 a and S1030a are periodically performed to acquire and determine the file list.

When the determination in step S1030 a is “YES,” the image dataacquiring unit 17 acquires the new file having the transmission timelater than the transmission time identified by the stored time stampfrom the cloud storage 50 (S1040 a).

In this way, even when the portable terminal 10 does not transmit thecloud storage access information 13 a including the file name to themultifunctional apparatus 30 (i.e., even when the file name is unknown),the portable terminal 10 can acquire the image data. If the cloudstorage access information 13 a is set with a file name, the image datacan be acquired by designating the file name.

A description is given of FIG. 10B. First, the image data acquiring unit17 acquires an indirectly specified file by referring to the cloudstorage access information 13 a (S1010 b).

Then, the image data acquiring unit 17 determines whether the status ofthe indirectly specified file is “complete” (S1020 b). If the status ofthe indirectly specified file is not “complete” (S1020 b: NO), the imagedata is not stored in the cloud storage 50, and thereby the image dataacquiring unit 17 waits.

When the determination in step S1020 b is “YES,” the image dataacquiring unit 17 acquires a folder location and a file name from theindirectly specified file (S1030 b).

Then, the image data acquiring unit 17 acquires the file from the cloudstorage 50 (S1040 b). In this configuration, even when the image data isstored in a folder different from the folder described in the cloudstorage access information 13 a, the portable terminal 10 can acquirethe file by using the indirectly specified file.

When Portable Terminal cannot acquire Image Data:

Hereinafter, a description is given of a case when the portable terminal10 cannot acquire the image data. After a user brings the portableterminal 10 closer to the multifunctional apparatus 30, the user may notperform specific operations, in which it is preferable for the user toconfirm whether the portable terminal 10 has received the image data.Therefore, the portable terminal 10 notifies or reports the user whetheror not the image data is received as follows.

FIG. 11 is an example of a flowchart illustrating a sequence when theportable terminal 10 displays whether or not the image data is received.The processing of FIG. 11 is executed, for example, after step 97 inFIG. 9.

First, the image data acquiring unit 17 of the portable terminal 10requests the acquiring of image data to the cloud storage 50 anddetermines whether image data is received from the cloud storage 50(S1110).

If the determination in step S1110 is “YES,” the image data acquiringunit 17 displays a completion notification or report (S1120).

If the determination in step S1110 is “NO,” the image data acquiringunit 17 determines whether the timeout has occurred (S1130). The timeoutmeans that the image data is not acquired from the cloud storage 50within a given time period even when the portable terminal 10 hasrequested the image data to the cloud storage 50. For example, thetimeout occurs when the communication status of the circuit-switchedcommunication is very slow or failed, and thereby the cloud storage 50does not respond. Further, the timeout also occurs when themultifunctional apparatus 30 cannot transmit the image data. The giventime period may be, for example, 15 minutes to 60 minutes, but a usercan set the given time period as appropriate.

If the timeout occurs (step S1130: YES), the sequence proceeds to step1150. If the timeout does not occur (step S1130: NO), the image dataacquiring unit 17 determines whether the communication scheme isswitched to the wireless LAN communication (step 1140). Since theportable terminal 10 is assumed to be connected to the circuit-switchedcommunication network, the communication scheme of the portable terminal10 may be switched to the wireless LAN from the circuit-switchedcommunication network in some cases. In this example case, since theimage data in the cloud storage 50 may be deleted when the given timeperiod elapses after transmitting the image data to the cloud storage 50as above described, the image data stored in the cloud storage 50 may bedeleted before the image data acquiring unit 17 acquires the image data.Since the communication switching is controlled, for example, by the OS,it can be determined whether the switching to the wireless LANcommunication is performed or not by inquiring the OS.

When the determination in step 1040 is “YES,” the display control unit15 displays, for example, a message of “downloading of image data is notyet completed, but select switching to wireless LAN?” on the display 102(S1150). With this configuration, the user can determine a prioritybetween receiving the image data and switching to the wireless LAN.

Operation of Multifunctional Apparatus:

Hereinafter, a description is given of an operation of themultifunctional apparatus 30 with reference to FIG. 12. FIG. 12 is anexample of a flowchart illustrating a sequence of storing image data inthe cloud storage 50 by the multifunctional apparatus 30. The sequenceof FIG. 12 starts, for example, when the multifunctional apparatus 30scans document and then generates image data.

First, the image data transmission unit 37 of the multifunctionalapparatus 30 determines whether a file name is acquired from theportable terminal 10 (S1210).

If the file name is acquired from the portable terminal 10 (S1210: YES),the image data can be saved by using the acquired file name, in whichthe image data transmission unit 37 stores the image data by using thefile name designated by the URL in the cloud storage access information13 a (S1220).

If the file name is not acquired from the portable terminal 10 (S1210:NO), the image data transmission unit 37 determines whether theindirectly specified file is used (S1230). Specifically, the image datatransmission unit 37 determines whether the “type” is set with a valueof “xxx.indirect” by referring to the cloud storage access information13 a, or determines whether the URL in the cloud storage accessinformation 13 a designates, for example, “xml file.”

When the determination in step S1230 is “NO,” the image datatransmission unit 37 assigns a file name that does not overlap otherfile names (S1240).

Then, the image data is stored by using the file name assigned to theURL of the cloud storage access information 13 a (S1250).

When the determination in step S1230 is “YES,” the image datatransmission unit 37 acquires the indirectly specified file by referringthe cloud storage access information 13 a because the indirectlyspecified file is used (step 1260).

Then, the image data transmission unit 37 determines whether the imagedata can be stored in a storage destination designated by the URL of theindirectly specified file (S1270). For example, by comparing theremaining amount of the storage capacity allocated for themultifunctional apparatus 30 and the size of the image data, the imagedata transmission unit 37 determines whether the image data can bestored in the designated storage destination. If the size of the imagedata is greater than the remaining amount of the storage capacityallocated for the multifunctional apparatus 30, the image datatransmission unit 37 determines that the image data cannot be stored inthe storage destination designated by the URL of the indirectlyspecified file.

If the determination in step S1270 is “YES,” the image data transmissionunit 37 assigns a file name that does not overlap with the URLdesignated by the indirect specification file to store the image datausing the assigned file name (S1280).

Then, the image data transmission unit 37 adds the assigned file name tothe indirectly specified file (S1290).

If the determination in step S1270 is “NO,” the image data transmissionunit 37 assigns a file name that does not overlap with a pre-set URL tostore the image data using the assigned file name (S1300).

Then, the image data transmission unit 37 updates the URL of theindirectly specified file, and adds the file name (S1310). As abovedescribed, the multifunctional apparatus 30 can store the image data inthe cloud storage 50 by using the cloud storage access information 13 atransmitted from the portable terminal 10.

Security:

As described above, the portable terminal 10 can acquire the image datatransmitted to the cloud storage 50. However, when the user can selectvarious types of server as the cloud storage 50 as above described,there is a possibility that virus may intrude in the cloud storage 50 orthe virus may be transmitted to the multifunctional apparatus 30.

For example, when the multifunctional apparatus 30 accesses a malicioussite, the multifunctional apparatus 30 may be contaminated by the virus,and the stored image data may be altered. If a user uses the cloudstorage 50 contaminated by the virus, the multifunctional apparatus 30may be contaminated by the virus or the portable terminal 10 may acquirethe altered image data.

Therefore, in the embodiment, the security problems which may occur byusing various types of server as the cloud storage 50 can be solved byas follows.

Limiting Cloud Storage Used as Access Destination:

If the types of cloud storage 50 accessible by the multifunctionalapparatus 30 is limited, the security problems can be reduced.Therefore, an administrator limits the types of the cloud storage 50accessible by the multifunctional apparatus 30 as follows. Theadministrator is a person who manages, operates and maintains the use ofthe multifunctional apparatus 30.

FIG. 13 is an example of a sequence diagram when the administrator setsa restriction on the transmission method of image data to the cloudstorage 50 by setting conditions. A description is given with referenceto FIG. 14, which illustrates a screen 511 used for setting thecondition of the storage destination information (storing method).

S131: The administrator operates the multifunctional apparatus 30 todisplay the screen 511 (FIG. 14) used for setting conditions of thestorage destination information (storing method). Typically, theconditions of the storage destination information are set using asetting menu of the multifunctional apparatus 30, in which it isrecommended that the administrator alone can set the conditions of thestorage destination information in consideration of security. Therefore,the administrator logs in the multifunctional apparatus 30 with anadministrator access right.

S131.1: When the user I/F 36 receives the operation of theadministrator, the user I/F 36 checks whether the condition of thestorage destination information is stored in the data storage unit 13,in which the user I/F 36 may request a list of the conditions of thestorage destination information. Since no conditions is registered forthe storage destination information at the time of the initialactivation, the user I/F 36 determines that the conditions is not yetregistered in the data storage unit 13.

S131.2: Then, the display control unit 38 of the user I/F 36 displaysthe screen 511 used for inputting the conditions of the storagedestination information by the administrator on the operation panel 202.Then, the administrator enters or inputs the conditions of the storagedestination information. The screen 511 illustrated in FIG. 14 is oneexample screen.

S131.3: When the user I/F 36 receives the input of the conditions of thestorage destination information (storing method) by the administrator,the user I/F 36 stores the conditions of the storage destinationinformation in the data storage unit 13. Then, the display control unit38 of the user I/F 36 displays the registration completion notice on theoperation panel 202.

FIG. 14 illustrates the screen 511 used for inputting the conditions ofthe storage destination information (storing method). The screen 511 isused by the administrator to restrict the cloud storage 50 accessible bythe multifunctional apparatus 30. As illustrated in FIG. 14, the screen511 displays a message “a. use following address only” with a radiobutton 512, and “b. not use following address” with a radio button 513.Further, the screen 511 also includes an address input field 514.

For example, if the administrator selects the radio button 512 andenters or inputs *.storage.* in the address input field 514, themultifunctional apparatus 30 accesses the cloud storage 50 having theaddress (URL) including “.storage.” alone. That is, the multifunctionalapparatus 30 does not access the cloud storage 50 that does not have theaddress (URL) including “.storage.” When the set address alone isallowed to use, such address is referred to as a white list.

Further, for example, if the administrator selects the radio button 513and inputs *.free.* in the address input field 514, the multifunctionalapparatus 30 is not allowed to access the cloud storage 50 having theaddress including “.free.” That is, the multifunctional apparatus 30does not access the cloud storage 50 having the address including“.free.” When the set address is not allowed to use, such address isreferred to as a blacklist.

With this configuration, even when the URL of the cloud storage 50having uncertain reliability is transmitted from the portable terminal10, the address of the white list alone is used and the address of theblacklist is not used, with which the security degradation can besuppressed.

Although the address alone is described as the conditions of the storagedestination information in this example case, the conditions of thestorage destination information is not limited thereto. For example, theaccess restriction can be set by the size or contents of image data. Forexample, the image data transmitted by the multifunctional apparatus 30can be limited such as storing of image data having a size greater thana predetermined size is not allowed, or storing of image data includinga specific term (e.g., confidential) is not allowed. For example, if auser erroneously scans a large number of pages and transmits image dataof the large number of pages to the cloud storage 50, themultifunctional apparatus 30 can prevent storing the image data in thecloud storage 50.

Further, it is possible to prevent the user from inadvertentlyregistering the confidential image data on the cloud storage 50 byapplying the rule that the multifunctional apparatus 30 cannot store theimage data written with “confidential.” The specific term such as“confidential” can be detected by the optical character recognition(OCR).

Further, a user name (e.g., user name in the authentication information13 b) of the portable terminal 10 may be set as the conditions of thestorage destination information, in which the access to the cloudstorage 50 can be restricted by the user name set in the cloud storageaccess information 13 a. For example, if the multifunctional apparatus30 is disposed in a company, the administrator can set selected usersalone can access the cloud storage 50 among employees of the company. Asdescribed above, any information acquired by the multifunctionalapparatus 30 by the short-range wireless communication can be used torestrict the access right to the cloud storage 50.

Further, since the user authentication is performed by themultifunctional apparatus 30, if the user name (e.g., the user name setin the authentication information 13 b) authenticated by themultifunctional apparatus 30 and the user name set in the cloud storageaccess information 13 a do not match, the multifunctional apparatus 30may not access the cloud storage 50.

Further, it is also possible to allow access to the cloud storage 50during a specific time period alone based on the time when the portableterminal 10 and the multifunctional apparatus 30 communicate with eachother in short-range wireless communication. Further, a specific usermay be combined with the specific time period to allow the access to thespecific user alone.

Further, the portable terminal 10, provided by the company that installsthe multifunctional apparatus 30, alone may be allowed to acquire imagedata via the cloud storage 50. Since the portable terminal 10 issupplied by the company, the user name in the authentication information13 b is set by the company. Therefore, the company can designate one ormore users who can use the cloud storage 50.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a sequence diagram performed by themultifunctional apparatus 30 when the conditions of storage destinationinformation (storing method) does not match.

S152: As described above, the data analyzing unit 33 of themultifunctional apparatus 30 already acquires the cloud storage accessinformation 13 a, the authentication information 13 b, the scanningsetting, and the file name (if there is a file name) from the portableterminal 10, and the authentication of the user is completed asdescribed above. Then, the data analyzing unit 33 requests the storagedestination information (storing method) to the data storage unit 35.

S153: When the data analyzing unit 33 acquires the conditions of thestorage destination information stored in the data storage unit 35, thedata analyzing unit 33 compares the conditions of the storagedestination information and the authentication information 13 b,compares the conditions of the storage destination information and thecloud storage access information 13 a, or compares the conditions of thestorage destination information and the authentication information 13 band the cloud storage access information 13 a to determine whether theimage data can be stored in the cloud storage 50. When the image datacan be stored in the cloud storage 50, step 92 and the subsequent stepsof FIG. 9 are executed.

S154: When the data analyzing unit 33 determines that themultifunctional apparatus 30 is not accessible to the cloud storage 50,the data analyzing unit 133 requests the user I/F 36 to display anerror.

S154.1: The display control unit 38 of the user I/F 36 displays amessage that the access is to the cloud storage 50 is denied on theoperation panel 202. With this configuration, the user can recognizethat the cloud storage 50 cannot be accessed from the multifunctionalapparatus 30, and the image data cannot be stored in the cloud storage50

As to the above described communication system 100 of the embodiment,the multifunctional apparatus 30 is configured to the storagedestination information (storing method) from the portable terminal 10,and store the image data on the cloud storage 50 on the Internet, whichcan be used by any user through the circuit-switched public line.Further, as to the above described communication system 100 of theembodiment, the portable terminal 10 is configured to acquire the imagedata from the cloud storage 50. Since the device (communication I/F 107)of the portable terminal 10 used for connecting with the Internet viathe circuit-switched public line, and the short-range wirelesscommunication device 109 of the portable terminal 10 used for connectingthe portable terminal 10 with the multifunctional apparatus 30 aredifferent devices, after transmitting the storage destinationinformation (storing method) to the cloud storage 50, the user is notrequired to switch the communication scheme of the portable terminal 10to the wireless LAN connection.

Other Applications:

The above described embodiment is one form of implementing the presentinvention, and the present invention is not limited to such embodiment,but various modifications and substitutions can be made within the scopeof the present invention.

For example, the cloud storage 50 is described as being on the Internet,but the cloud storage 50 may be on any network accessible by theportable terminal 10.

In the embodiment described above, the multifunctional apparatus 30transmits the image data generated by scanning the document to the cloudstorage 50. However, the multifunctional apparatus 30 can be configuredto transmit data to a server, and then transmit the data, processed bythe server and acquired from the server, to the cloud storage 50. Theserver performs various processing, such as OCR, translation, facialrecognition or the like.

In the embodiment described above, when the portable terminal 10 isconnected to the Internet, the circuit-switched public line such as3G/4G/LTE is used, but not limited to thereto. For example, alternativecommunication scheme to the Internet other than the circuit-switchedpublic line such as 3G/4G/LTE can be used as long as the alternativecommunication scheme and the short-range wireless communication devicecan be used in parallel. For example, WiMAX is known.

The configuration illustrated in FIG. 6 is divided according to the mainfunctions in order to facilitate understanding of processing by theportable terminal 10, the multifunctional apparatus 30, and the cloudstorage 50, but the present invention is not limited by the abovedescribed divided processing unit and the names. The processing of theportable terminal 10, the multifunctional apparatus 30, and the cloudstorage 50 can be divided into more processing units according to theprocessing contents. Further, the one processing unit can be configuredto include more processing.

In the embodiment described above, the public line communication unit 11corresponds to the public line communication network (secondcommunication network), the short-range wireless communication unit 12corresponds to the short-range wireless communication network (firstcommunication network), the wireless LAN communication unit 18corresponds to the wireless LAN communication network (thirdcommunication network), the display control unit 15 is an example of thedisplay control unit, the short-range data communication unit 32 is anexample of a storage destination information receiving unit, and thescanning unit 34 is an example of an electronic data acquisition unit,and the image data transmission unit 37 is an example of an image datastoring unit.

As above described, the information processing apparatus of theembodiment does not require switching of the communication scheme whenacquiring electronic data.

Each of the functions of the above described embodiments can beimplemented by one or more processing circuits or circuitry. Processingcircuitry includes a programmed processor, as a processor includescircuitry. A processing circuit also includes devices such as anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), digital signal processor(DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), system on a chip (SOC),graphics processing unit (GPU), and conventional circuit componentsarranged to perform the recited functions.

As described above, the present invention can be implemented in anyconvenient form, for example using dedicated hardware, or a mixture ofdedicated hardware and software. The present invention may beimplemented as computer software implemented by one or more networkedprocessing apparatuses. The network can comprise any conventionalterrestrial or wireless communications network, such as the Internet.The processing apparatuses can compromise any suitably programmedapparatuses such as a general purpose computer, personal digitalassistant, mobile telephone (such as a WAP or 3G-compliant phone) and soon. Since the present invention can be implemented as software, each andevery aspect of the present invention thus encompasses computer softwareimplementable on a programmable device. The computer software can beprovided to the programmable device using any storage medium for storingprocessor readable code such as a floppy disk, hard disk, CD ROM,magnetic tape device or solid state memory device.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic apparatus comprising: processingcircuitry configured to, receive, via a first communication networkoperating according to a short range wireless communication protocol,storage destination information and authentication information from aninformation processing apparatus, the storage destination informationreceived via the first communication network including a network addressof a storage device different from the electronic apparatus and theinformation processing apparatus that is a storage destination ofelectronic data to be generated by the electronic apparatus performing ascanning operation and the authentication information includinginformation used to authenticate with the storage device that is thestorage destination of the electronic data, generate the electronic databy performing the scanning operation in response to a request to performthe scanning operation received from the information processingapparatus via the first communication network, and transmit, via asecond communication network different from the first communicationnetwork, the electronic data generated by the scanning operation, to thestorage destination based on the storage destination information and theauthentication information previously received via the firstcommunication network from the information processing apparatus.
 2. Theelectronic apparatus of claim 1, wherein the electronic apparatus isconfigured to use the first communication network and the secondcommunication network in parallel.
 3. The electronic apparatus of claim1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to instruct thestorage device to delete the electronic data stored in the storagedevice via the second communication network when the processingcircuitry determines that a given time period or more elapses aftertransmitting the electronic data to the storage device from theelectronic apparatus.
 4. The electronic apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe information processing apparatus is a mobile terminal, and theelectronic apparatus is configured to perform the scanning operationbased on the request from the mobile terminal while the mobile terminalis not connected to the second communication network.
 5. The electronicapparatus of claim 1, wherein the second communication network is one ofa plurality of other communication networks.
 6. The electronic apparatusof claim 5, wherein the electronic apparatus is configured to receivethe request to perform the scanning operation from the informationprocessing apparatus while the information processing apparatus is notconnected to the plurality of other communication networks utilized totransmit the electronic data generated by the scanning operation.
 7. Theelectronic apparatus of claim 1, wherein the information processingapparatus is configured to acquire, via a third communication networkthat is one of a plurality of other communication networks differentfrom the first communication network, the electronic data from thestorage destination based on the storage destination informationtransmitted via the first communication network.
 8. A communicationsystem comprising: an information processing apparatus; an electronicapparatus configured to communicate with the information processingapparatus; and a storage device on a network configured to communicatewith the information processing apparatus and the electronic apparatus,wherein the information processing apparatus includes first processingcircuitry configured to, transmit, via a first communication networkoperating according to a short range wireless communication protocol, astorage destination information and authentication information to theelectronic apparatus, the storage destination information transmittedvia the first communication network including a network address of thestorage device different from the electronic apparatus and theinformation processing apparatus that is a storage destination ofelectronic data and the authentication information including informationused to authenticate with the storage device that is the storagedestination of the electronic data, transmit, via the firstcommunication network, a request to the electronic apparatus to performa scanning operation, and acquire, via a second communication networkdifferent from the first communication network, the electronic data fromthe storage device based on the storage destination informationtransmitted via the first communication network, wherein the electronicapparatus includes second processing circuitry configured to, receive,via the first communication network, the storage destination informationand the authentication information from the information processingapparatus, generate the electronic data by performing the scanningoperation in response to the request to perform the scanning operationfrom the information processing apparatus, and store the electronic datain the storage device on the network via a third communication networkbased on the storage destination information and the authenticationinformation previously received from the information processingapparatus.
 9. The communication system of claim 8, wherein theinformation processing apparatus is a mobile terminal such that themobile terminal is configured to transmit the request the electronicapparatus perform the scanning operation while the mobile terminal isnot connected to the second communication network.
 10. A method ofoperating an electronic apparatus, the method comprising: receiving, viaa first communication network operating according to a short rangewireless communication protocol, storage destination information andauthentication information from an information processing apparatus, thestorage destination information received via the first communicationnetwork including a network address of a storage device different fromthe electronic apparatus and the information processing apparatus thatis a storage destination of electronic data to be generated by theelectronic apparatus performing a scanning operation and theauthentication information including information used to authenticatewith the storage device that is the storage destination of theelectronic data; generating the electronic data by performing thescanning operation in response to a request to perform the scanningoperation received from the information processing apparatus via thefirst communication network; and transmitting, via a secondcommunication network different from the first communication network,the electronic data generated by the scanning operation, to the storagedestination based on the storage destination information and theauthentication information previously received via the firstcommunication network from the information processing apparatus.
 11. Themethod of claim 10, wherein the electronic apparatus is configured touse the first communication network and the second communication networkin parallel.
 12. The method of claim 10, further comprising: instructingthe storage device to delete the electronic data stored in the storagedevice via the second communication network when the electronicapparatus determines that a given time period or more elapses aftertransmitting the electronic data to the storage device from theelectronic apparatus.
 13. The method of claim 10, wherein theinformation processing apparatus is a mobile terminal, and theelectronic apparatus is configured to perform the scanning operationbased on the request from the mobile terminal while the mobile terminalis not connected to the second communication network.
 14. The method ofclaim 10, wherein the second communication network is one of a pluralityof other communication networks.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein theelectronic apparatus is configured to receive the request to perform thescanning operation from the information processing apparatus while theinformation processing apparatus is not connected to the plurality ofother communication networks utilized to transmit the electronic datagenerated by the scanning operation.
 16. The method of claim 10, whereinthe information processing apparatus is configured to acquire, via athird communication network that is one of a plurality of othercommunication networks different from the first communication network,the electronic data from the storage destination based on the storagedestination information transmitted via the first communication network.